Archive for September, 2010

Fendt Germany introduced their new Katana 65 forage harvester at Fendt Field Days last week.

““For a leading global agricultural equipment manufacturer and the premium brand Fendt it is a must to offer all key machines in the product portfolio. With the Fendt Katana 65, we have taken the last big step towards becoming a full-liner,” said Peter-Josef Paffen, Vice President & Managing Director, Fendt.

“For these reasons, the AGCO decided to develop a forage harvester a few years ago and is employing the development expertise of the Marktoberdorf location for this completely new development. The newly formed forage harvester team used the existing development expertise from the tractor division at Fendt intensively. The experienced engineers in the forage harvester development team received support from the professionals in tractor development, for the hydraulics, electronics, engine and cab. This led to new ideas and enabled completely new approaches in the development of the Fendt Katana 65 forage harvester. The name Katana, which our engineers have chosen for the new product, signifies how high the aims for this development are. A katana is a Japanese samurai sword and stands for high performance, sharpness and precision.” View the whole press release at this source: Press | Press releases – AGCO GmbH

This is a very exciting addition to the Fendt lineup. Did you see it in action at Fendt Field Days?

While we in North America were at Farm Progress Show last week, Fendt Germany was busy with their famous “Fendt Field Days” in Wadenbrunn, Germany. The legendary celebration welcomed more than 50,000 visitors and shared exciting new technologies from the Marktoberdorf-based plant.

Shown in operation are more than 100 Fendt tractors and Fendt harvesting machines from 100 to 650 hp as well as 130 other implements. However, the stars of the show were the introduction of the new 939 Vario with 390 horsepower and the long-awaited Fendt Kantana 65 forage harvester. I’ll share more about the forage harvester in tomorrows blog post so stay tuned!

The Farm Progress Show was a success! Despite the rainy weather, minor flooding and muddy conditions, everyone still came out and had a great time. If you missed the show, you missed a lot. But no worries…we have you covered! You can check out videos from AGCO on our Farm Progress Show playlist on YouTube.

We also visited “Big Bud”, the largest operating tractor in the world, weighing in at 65 tons, standing tall at 14 feet and 28 1/2 feet long. Big Bud boasts a modern-day rating of 1000 horsepower and was produced in 1977-1978. It was huge! Just to give some perspective, the signs in the photo to the right stand just about 5’5″ tall-my height!

Well, Farm Progress Show is on it’s last day here in Iowa. Have you been following us on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter? If so, then you already know what AGCO North America has been up to this past week. If not, you should visit our social media sites listed above to catch up on what is happening.Today (Thursday, September 2), if the weather cooperates, we will have an AGCO Chat live from the show at 11am, CDT. Kevin Bien will lead the discussion and answer questions.

Check out this video from Larry Kuster on the Sunflower 6630 Vertical Tillage Tool.

Out at the Farm Progress Show, the AGCO social media team is sharing a booth was some interesting characters. One of them happens to be Dave Swain with AGCO Technology Solutions. He so graciously taught me about the new Topcon AES25 autosteering system. He will share below why the AES25 option for the System 150 is the perfect solution for non-steering ready tractors.